There were several aspects of which to take note. LSU ran only 54 plays after holding the ball for 80 the week before against TCU. That's because the offense hit big plays all night, including four touchdown passes of more than 20 yards.

The running game was almost an afterthought. LSU called 31 running plays, not counting Zach Mettenberger scrambles, and 23 passes. When the Tigers got close to the red zone, they went for the touchdown with big pass plays against a porous UAB defense.

Once again, the new Cam Cameron attack preferred the basic pro set - two running backs, two wide receivers and a tight end - but also ran more two tight end sets than last week. It's likely at this point Cameron is trying to get certain players some work and at the same time not show too much to future opponents. Tight ends and fullbacks each caught two passes. They ran the bunch formation twice, but look for it to be used quite prominently in SEC games.

Defensively, LSU rolled out a lot of young players and that's with a clear purpose. Defensive coordinator john Chavis isn't finished molding his defense. The Tigers clearly lack a true Mike linebacker and D.J. Welter isn't lighting it up there, but no one else is either.

And look for changes in the secondary. Freshman Tre'Davious White got a lot of playing

time in place of Jalen Collins and was LSU's third-leading tackler with six. Rashard Robinson may soon join White in the starting lineup. He played after being with the team for only nine days. Ronald Martin's days as the starting safety may also be numbered. He had two egregiously missed tackles and Micah Eugene may move into his spot with Jalen Mills eventually becoming the third cornerback. Stay tuned.

Player of the Game

Odell Beckham Jr. - Sure, Zach Mettenberger broke the school record for touchdown passes and hit 16 of 19 passes, but there wasn't much resistance. Beckham may be the most improved player on the team, Mettenberger included.

Beckham looks faster and stronger, more confident in his routes. And it's apparent he's going to get a workout as an all-purpose player. He's got three runs on end-around plays in two games, and is the punt and kickoff returner.

Perhaps his best play was not one of his touchdowns but a 49-yard completion to set up LSU's first score. He wore out UAB CB Lamarcus Farmer. He faked an inside move, turned Farmer around and had him beaten. Mettenberger's throw wasn't right on target and Farmer caught up, giving Beckham a bump, but Beckham kept his balance and made a nice adjustment for the leaping catch falling backward.

Offensive Play of the Game

Jarvis Landry's leaping catch for a 24-yard touchdown.

Landry is as tough as a wide receiver can come, but he has great athletic skills, which he showed on this play. He lined up in the slot to the right and blew past the row of zone coverage. Tight end DeSean Smith ran straight at safety Calvin Jones to freeze him.

Jones still had time to get over to Landry but Mettenberger threw the ball too high for Jones to get it running with his back to the play. Landry climbed the ladder and plucked the ball out of the air, with two hands this time, unlike his one-handed catch at Arkansas last season.

Defensive Play of the Game

The fourth down stop in the fourth quarter. LSU was up 28-0 in barely more than a quarter, so there weren't many significant defensive plays. But this one saved a little honor and made the score look a little more dominant.

I'll go with the last four plays of the drive to credit some other players. Kendall Beckwith was a force on the first two. On first down at the LSU 16, Beckwith showed his strength as he pushed a blocker backward into running back Jordan Howard's path after a 5-yard gain. On the next play Beckwith showed his lateral quickness as he beat the block of FB Santonio Jones to force an off-tackle play outside and then made the tackle after a 3-yard gain.

On third down, LB Lamar Louis stepped into the hole and met Howard one-on-one and stopped him cold for a 1-yard gain. On fourth down, Louis run-blitzed and was cut from the side by the UAB center. But freshman end Tashawn Bower blew up this play. He pushed offensive lineman Roscoe Byrd into Howard in the backfield and then grabbed Howard. Lorenzo Phillips sped over from the right side to finish off the play.

Beckham's 100-yard missed field goal return. You don't see these very often because most defending teams will take the field position rather than try a return. LSU would have gotten the ball at the Tiger 42-yard line. But special teams coach Thomas McGaughey thought it was worth a try and was validated.

The key is that field goal kicking teams aren't built like punt coverage teams. They are mostly made up of big linemen in for blocking. That's why when Beckham made his cut, he had plenty of room on the left side.

Beckham caught the ball and started toward the right. You can see the UAB players hardly realizing the ball was coming back out and they all moved to that side of the field. At the 10, Beckham angled back to the left and tight end Kennard Backman was the closest player to him. Beckham easily turned the corner on Backman at the LSU 40 and had plenty of open space.

Kwon Alexander provided the first of his two key blocks when he pancaked deep snapper Dallas Noriega at the UAB 40. Ego Ferguson nearly got the play called back as he tried to block Jamari Staple, who made a diving try at Beckham. Ferguson came in behind him and fell on him, making contact but apparently not enough.

Alexander continued speeding downfield ahead of Beckham and removed the last remaining obstacle, holder Hunter Mullins, by shoving him out of the way at the 10-yard line.

Chalk it up to nerves. Jennings was on his second snap in Tiger Stadium and took off before catching the shotgun snap from Elliott Porter. The snap was good and on time but like the classic case of the wide receiver turning his head to run before making the catch, Jennings muffed it.

It's a shame, it could have been a big play. He had freshman speedster Jeryl Brazil in the backfield and it was apparently going to be an option play to the right, the wide side of the field. Luckily for LSU, Brazil was alert enough to peel back and beat Jennings to the ball. He tried to scoop it and fumbled it forward a yard before falling on it as the Blazers closed in.

Ouch Play

The new NCAA targeting rule has put a crimp in my selection of Ouch Plays. Players are careful not to blow up defenseless ballcarriers. Thankfully, there is fullback J.C. Copeland, who is still delivering hits three years after moving from defense to offense.

LSU is using fullbacks in the passing game and on this play, Mettenberger faked a run and flipped a short pass to the right to Copeland after getting a mild pass rush. Copeland turned upfield and faked out CB Cortez Webb. He lowered his head and slammed into LB Shaq Jones coming over from Copeland's left. Jones got credit for the tackle but did little more than run into Copeland's path and get knocked backward. He'll remember that one.

Quarterback Report

Zach Mettenberger played this game with the greatest of ease. Part of it was his confidence and part was the lack of competition. Sure, Mettenberger was poised and accurate, with 16 completions in 19 attempts. His first pass was his worst, one of those flares to the wide receiver that was too low for Beckham. The rest of the night he was on the money against a team that allowed Corey Robinson of Troy to complete 30-of-32 passes the week before.

Still, Mettenberger showed he's learned from last year. His first two TD passes to Beckham were right on the money and between defenders. All three TD passes to Beckham got to the receiver in perfect stride with perfect timing. The first was a deep slant, which requires a strong arm and Mettenberger showed it.

On the second scoring pass, Mettenberger looked the safety off to the right and came back to Beckham running a post pattern on the left. Mettenberger fired the ball into the end zone just as Beckham was making his break. That's good chemistry, something that was lacking last season.

The last scoring pass to Beckham also showed Mettenberger's maturity. It was a go pattern from the 27-yard line, meaning he couldn't just launch the ball as far as he wanted and let Beckham run under it. He had to drop it into the back of the end zone and hope Beckham could stay in bounds. It was a perfect throw and, again, perfect timing. It's the kind of pass Mettenberger would overthrow last season.

Mettenberger is also getting to know his tight ends and backs. Throws to the fullbacks require touch and he showed it with a 16-yarder to Connor Neighbors under heavy pressure. Mettenberger took a hit on the play but Neighbors got the ball without having to break stride. Not having to stop and turn to catch the ball allows him to flow into the play. He would have scored if Beckham hadn't come over to block and run into him.

Mettenberger made good decisions about pulling the ball down, too. He's never going to be feared as a runner, but he will be able to occasionally frustrate defenses. He scrambled three times, converting third downs on two of them. The biggest mistake quarterbacks make in that situation is waiting too long to make the commitment to run. Mettenberger seems to have finally gotten over that insistence to wait until the last possible second to make a play with his arm and go ahead an help the team by running for the sure first down. If he had been a little faster he might have been three-for-three.

There isn't much to complain about. But Mettenberger's true ability and resolve will be tested once SEC play starts. That's when he'll have to show he can respond through adversity. He simply didn't have any Saturday.

Penalty Breakdown: 5 for 45 yards

False start: 3 (Jerald Hawkins, Deion Jones, Josh Boutte)

Roughing the quarterback: 1 (Deion Jones)

Late hit: 1 (Anthony Johnson)

Formation breakdown

2WR/1TE/2RB - 21

1WR/2TE/2RB - 16

3WR/1TE/1RB - 11

4WR/1RB - 2

3TE/2RB - 3

Victory - 1

Wide receiver receptions/targets

Jarvis Landry 5 - 7

Odell Beckham 5 - 6

Travin Dural 1 - 1

DeSean Smith 1 - 1

Dillon Gordon 1 - 1

Terrence Magee 1 - 1

Connor Neighbors 1 - 1

J.C. Copeland 1 - 1

Quantavious Leslie 1 - 1

Name Snaps/Knockdowns/Pancakes

La'El Collins 48/3/1

Vadal Alexander 48/5/0

Elliot Porter 48/6/2

Trai Turner 48/0/0

Jerald Hawkins 48/1/0

Evan Washington 9/0/0

Ethan Pocic 9/3/0

Josh Boutte 9/0/0

Jonah Austin 9/0/0

Fehoko Fanaika 9/0/0

Notes and observations

First quarter

LSU ran its bunch formation, three receivers forming a triangle, on two of the first six plays but not again afterward. . . Travin Dural got one target and it was out of the bunch formation. He picked up 13 yards making a defender miss. It's possible LSU is hiding him from SEC foes. . . Alfred Blue wasn't impressive and made a bad read on a 1-yard loss, trying to go outside RT Jerald Hawkins when there was a hole to the inside. . . Jordan Allen had no trouble beating a block by FB Santonio Jones to get his second sack of the season on UAB's first possession. . . Beckham's 49-yard catch came out of a one-wide receiver set with nine UAB defenders in the box. . . Rasco could have been flagged for a late hit when he pushed QB Austin Brown down after a throw. . . DJ Welter made a nice one-on-one tackle in the hole on Reaves. . . Rasco got a coverage sack by waiting for Brown to start upfield, then came off his block inside. . . DeSean Smith and Jarvis Landry had good blocks to spring Jeryl Brazil on a 9-yard run. . . Kwon Alexander came up hard for a nice tackle in the hole, dropping Greg Franklin for a 1-yard loss. . . As a TE Jonah Austin blasted Diaheem Watkins to the inside and Copeland crushed Patrick Bastien to the outside to open the hole for Hilliard's 1-yard TD run.

Second quarter

Quentin Thomas, who missed an easy fumble recovery vs. TCU, took his time and crawled toward the ball to cover it up. Lamin Barrow was set to scoop and score but got there late. . . TE Logan Stokes and LT La'el Collins opened such a big hole on Hill's TD that pulling RG Trai Turner had no one to block. Hill had to jump over him to get to the end zone. . . CB Jalen Collins got burned for a 33-yard completion by Staples, who collided with teammate Jamarcus Nelson on the play. . . Reaves' TD came on a play that started right, then went left. Lamar Louis got pancaked by OG Vincent Hunter, Ferguson penetrated and nearly made the play. Mills went for Reaves inside fake allowing him to turn the corner for the score. . . Mettenberger showed good awareness by stepping up inside the rush to hit Landry for 17 yards. . . Ronald Martin missed a chance for a tackle for loss, allowing Reaves to get 5. . . Micah Eugene dropped Nelson for a 1-yard loss after a reception with a strong one-on-one tackle. . . Lorenzo Phillips wasn't fooled by a fake and stayed with Franklin on a wheel route to force an incomplete pass. . . Safety Corey Thompson was way late getting over in coverage on the 41-yard TD pass to Nelson. Mills was in coverage along and was beaten. . . Terrence Magee was tripped by Mettenberger for a 2-yard loss. . . Hilliard made a 270-degree spin move to get 6 yards when UAB blitzed. . . Reaves got an extra 8 yards on Martin's missed tackle . . . Welter did a good job to force a sweep inside so Mills could make the tackle on a 1-yard gain.

Third quarter

Hill had a choice of three holes on a 14-yard gain and chose the one made by Neighbors and Vadal Alexander. . . Jordan Allen looked very athletic jumping high to bat down pass by Brown . . . QB Anthony Jennings got 4 yards on his first snap in Tiger Stadium, but made a bad read and could have had a big gainer through a hole by Turner and Collins. . . Nice shoestring tackle by Tre'Davious white to hold Franklin to 2 yards. . . Kwon Alexander fought off a block to make the first hit on Franklin's 1-yard gain . . . LSU's O-line crushed UAB's D-line on consecutive runs of 14 and 15 yards by Hill. On the second one, Gordon set the outside edge, Alexander sealed the inside and Collins drove the LB way downfield. . . DT Anthony Johnson missed a tackle in the backfield and gave up, favoring his left shoulder. He did not play the remainder of the game . . . Danielle Hunter pushed OT Victor Salako backward, causing him to trip Franklin for no gain. . . Kennard Backman motioned left then ran a pattern back to the right and was wide open for 13 yards because of a coverage bust.

Fourth quarter

Freshman DE Tashawn Bower flushed Brown out of the pocket while Lewis Neal came on a stunt to share a sack with Barrow. . . LSU's offensive line for the last two series had Josh Bouttee and Evan Washington at OT, Jonah Austin and Fehoko Fanaika at OG and Ethan Pocic at C. . . White and Rashard Robinson had good coverage on Nelson and Staples to force an incomplete pass.